Business news in pictures - June 3

Business news in pictures - June 3

1/5
Fighting talk from Greece ahead of euro zone meeting

Greece, led by prime minister Alexis Tsipras, has warned that it will miss Friday’s €300 million (£218.7 million) payment to creditors if it does not get an aid-for-reforms package from them (Picture: Alkis Konstantinidis, Reuters)

Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

2/5
Qatari stocks hit after Blatter resignation

Stocks on the main equity index in Qatar, host of the 2022 World Cup, plunged by as much as 3% - briefly taking $4.5bn in value off the index's market cap - after Fifa president Sepp Blatter resigned (Picture: EPA)

EPA

3/5
House price inflation slows

The general election provided no immediate fillip to the housing market, as Nationwide said prices rose by just 0.3% in May, but a rebound is expected (Picture: Dan Kitwood, Getty Images)

4/5
Merlin shares drop in early trading after Smiler crash

Merlin Entertainments’ shares tumbled in early trading but later recovered, following the roller-coaster crash at Alton Towers (Picture: Twitter/‏@_ben_jamming)

‏@_ben_jamming

5/5
US investor backs £750m Shoreditch project

A US investor that previously expressed an interest in a Tottenham Hotspur takeover, is backing a major £750 million property development at a historic Shoreditch site (Picture: Cain Hoy)

Cain Hoy

True, the controversial privatisation IPO is long done, thanks in part to his predecessor Donald Brydon’s smooth ways with Westminster and Whitehall.

The sale of the remaining taxpayer’s stake is in the gift of the Government, not the Royal Mail chairman.

But a big lobbying task remains — to make the case that it’s unfair for rivals to cherry pick the most-lucrative urban postal routes while Royal Mail is burdened with the Universal Service Obligation.

More from Jim Armitage

So far Ofcom has refused to be bounced, demanding the former monopoly service boost efficiency rather than whinge about competition.

Meanwhile, MPs with remote constituents to worry about remain extremely jumpy about any threat to the USO.

It all requires a good deal of subtle, Yes Minister-type wheedling and lobbying for Long, a refreshingly outspoken executive (remember him blasting the Government’s actions on airlines during the Icelandic volcano eruption as “shambolic”?).

No doubt he’s capable of the job, and headhunter Zygos is to be congratulated in wooing him into it. I just suspect he may find it all rather trying.

Another mini-crisis

Well, there’s a surprise. Creditors and Greece make a big noise for weeks about how unreasonable each other are before, as we went to press, drawing close to a deal — albeit yet another temporary one.

For its posturing, all-powerful Germany sees too much at stake politically for Greece to be pushed out of the euro.

That being the case, these continued mini-crises and supposed deadlines will continue until the creditors finally accept that they will have to write down the value of their loans to Athens.